A Measure of Toxicity

Abstract

Principal Vanessa Sanchez assumed leadership of a high-need, high-poverty urban school with a mandate from the district superintendent to change the school culture and to build an instructional team aligned to the principal’s theory of change. The central dilemma of the case is how to lead organizational change while managing interpersonal difficulties between a new administrator and a potentially toxic employee, who has been seen using drugs on campus, and who is also suspected of possession of marijuana on campus. The case challenges students to grapple with systemic change, as opposed to only navigating individual conflict, to shift an organization’s culture.